Riot PBE Patch Notes - [8/13/2013] Tentative PBE Changes & Discussion

Note: Also Working on Today's PBE post as well, just went out while I was in a game.

Riot Pwyff has been kind enough to toss up a set of tentative PBE patch notes, explaining some of the changes we have already seen or can expect to see this PBE cycle.

Continue reading for the full set of tentative patch notes, including big changes being tested for Olaf!
Here's the full set of notes:

"NUMERICAL VALUES ARE EXCLUDED FROM PBE PATCH NOTES DUE TO THE NATURE OF THE PBE (IT CHANGES!).

We are always trying to improve clarity of the Patch Notes and would
appreciate feedback on their format if you feel you can add anything.
Except asking for numerical values. Quit it!

Hey Summoners,

As you know, we use the PBE servers as a testing ground for a lot of our
experimental changes, but we’ve run into situations where sometimes a
change requires a bit more nuance to understand. As a result, we’ll be
driving these PBE context posts when we can offer some more context.

Also note that these changes are tentative, like anything else on the PBE, so they are all very subject to change.

Spectator Mode and Replays

On PBE, Spectator Mode and Replays will be disabled briefly for maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Context: LeBlanc has traditionally been a difficult champion to
play well and the changes made to her in 3.9 made her even more
difficult to play. These changes are aimed at slightly improving her
base play experience.General

Base Health Regen per 5 increased

Attack Damage Per Level minorly increased

Master YiSummary: Master Yi’s attack speed per level has been reduced.
Meditate’s damage reduction at later levels has been increased. Wuju
Style’s passive attack damage bonus is higher at earlier levels and
lower at later levels.

Context: We definitely wanted to reduce Master Yi’s power, but we
wanted to do it in an intelligent way that created windows of
opportunity rather than just reducing his overall damage. We like
Highlander’s reset mechanic, but the flat second reduction on it meant
that Master Yi was becoming almost completely untargetable when he gets
the first kill, as he could use Alpha Strike after Alpha Strike with no
window of vulnerability. These changes mean Master Yi will need to land a
few basic attacks whenever he gets a reset if he wants to Alpha Strike
again, which should give his opponents the opportunity to counter. We
also buffed Meditate as a secondary decision in order to allow him to
bridge those cooldown gaps defensively if he wants to.General

Attack Speed gained per Level moderately decreased

Double Strike

Fixed a bug where the second strike would damage targets while Master Yi was blinded

Meditate

Damage Reduction increased at later ranks

Wuju Style

Passive Attack Damage bonus changed to a flat percent across all ranks

Highlander

Now passively reduces the remaining
cooldown for Master Yi's basic abilities by 70% on a kill or assist
rather than 18 seconds on kill or 9 seconds on assist

Olaf***Special Context: These changes are in a high state of flux, so
providing a direct summary and/or context post won’t be enough here.
Instead we’ll focus on our overarching goals and will provide more
insight as we go. We’d also like to note that because these changes are
highly contentious, we may also pull them completely from this patch for
additional testing.

Our core problem with Olaf has been that, when played well, his kit
allows him to circumvent a lot of healthy gameplay interactions within
League of Legends. We’ll discuss the difficulties of balancing around
this in the future, but for now our goals are to create more gameplay
and counterplay within Olaf’s kit so that he remains true to his
character design, but isn’t an overpowering presence within the
competitive scene like before.General

Base Mana reduced by a small amount

Mana per level reduced by a moderate amount

Undertow

Slow no longer decays

Minimum distance added

Axes now stick in walls and structures only if they would land in impassible terrain

Axes now make jungle monsters ignore unit collision to enable Olaf's Axe pickup play in the jungle better

Vicious Strikes

Mana cost changed to a lower flat amount per level

Now provides a small % of extra healing for every % of health Olaf is missing

Health ratio removed from AD component

Base Damage increased significantly

Lifesteal minorly reduced

Spellvamp removed

Reckless Swing

Cooldown increased moderately

Damage reduced moderately at later levels

Cost reduced by a small amount at later levels

Basic attacks lower the cooldown of Reckless Swing by a small amount

Ragnarok

Mana Cost removed

Now provides a moderate amount of Armor / Magic Resistance passively

Active Reworked: Now removes the passive portion of the ability
while active, grants a moderate amount of AD, and causes Olaf's basic
attacks to splash to nearby enemies for a lower % of damage

Olaf now turns Red when Ragnarok is active (base skin only)

RivenSummary: Riven can now leap over walls with the third hit of
Broken Wings, and the skill has been recoded to make this mechanic more
functional.

Context: Riven's Broken Wings has been crossing walls on live
since the addition of a few engine fixes. We looked at this and, rather
than leaving it as a questionably intended mechanic, we want to fully
support the emergent gameplay while cleaning up the interactions.
Ultimately we feel this change promotes Riven’s high mobility playstyle
and skirmish play pattern, so we will balance around it rather than
simply removing it.General

Fixed an issue where several of Riven's particle effects were missing

Broken Wings

Riven's Broken Wings hitbox has been retuned to more closely match the particles

Third hit now knocks up targets affected rather than knocking them back

Only the third hit can now leap over walls and the skill has been recoded to clean up this mechanic significantly

Phage & Trinity ForceSummary: Phage and Trinity Force no longer have the “Icy” slow
passive. Instead of a percentage chance to slow an enemy champion on
hit, these items now grant movement speed for a short duration of time,
along with even more movement speed on minion, monster, and champion
kills. Frozen Mallet’s function remains unchanged, but its recipe has
changed.

Context: With the nerfs to Blade of the Ruined King, we wanted to
create more tools for bruisers to remain “sticky” to their targets. We
focused on in-skirmish mobility as a valuable and healthy stat for all
champions, where Phage’s percentage chance slow was something we
ultimately wanted to phase out.Phage (NEW)If a change is not mentioned, it is still on the item

Recipe: Cloth Armor + Long Sword + Gold

- Health

+ Armor

Icy passive removed

NEW UNIQUE Passive - Rage: Basic Attacks grant movement speed for a
short duration on hit. Minion, monster, and champion kills grant
movement speed for a short duration.

Sanguine BladeSummary: Similar to the changes made in 3.10 with the removal of
Needlessly Large Rod, the recipe change on Sanguine Blade is to
alleviate frustrations surrounding having to save for a B.F. Sword.

Sanguine Blade (OLD)If a change is not mentioned, it is still on the item

YorickContext: Yorick in a solo lane has some strong counters but, if
you do not specifically counter him, he tends to crush his opponent.
These changes are meant to slow down some of his harass and sustain.Omen of Famine

Cast Range reduced by a small amount

Cooldown changed to a flat number

LuluContext: Wild Growth has amazing team utility and it being up for nearly every fight was giving Lulu a little too much power. Wild Growth

Cooldown increased by a small amount

WukongContext: Wukong was getting a lot of free tank stats, allowing
him to build damage without worrying about being too squishy. For
similar reasons to Lulu, we've increased the cooldown on Cyclone.Stone Skin